Ice and Snow
by Loopholes47
Summary: After Anna's coronation as queen, Elsa makes one last trip to Ahtohallan for closure. But messing with ancient magic often leads to disastrous results, and Elsa is catapulted through space and time to unfamiliar lands... as a child?
1. Frost

**Ice and Snow**

**After Anna's coronation as queen, Elsa makes one last trip to Ahtohallan for closure. But messing with ancient magic often leads to disastrous results, and Elsa is catapulted through space and time to unfamiliar lands... as a child?**

**Chapter 1**

**Published:**

* * *

A massive headache was what woke her up.

Elsa jumped up with a shout, then clutched her head from the agonizing waves of pain pounding inside. A calm, warm hand pressed itself gently against her forehead and soft whispers lulled her back into a resting position. Her entire body pulsated and trembled and the last thing she could remember...

What was it, again? She had just returned back to the northern forests to guide over to Northundra people after having celebrated Anna's coronation to queen. And, of course, Anna's ceremony with Kristoff right after. Queen Anna and Crown Prince Kristoff. Had a nice ring to it, she thought. With her younger sister's open, kind heart and utter bravery, she was best fit for rule. Elsa wasn't jealous of the queenship being passed down - in fact, preferred it - but she did worry if Anna's kind nature would lead to some foreign ambassador looking down on Arendelle. Ignoring that, however, Elsa had traveled back to the northern forests, and then had decided to travel even more north to give Ahtohallan one last goodbye. Ahtohallan was far too dangerous and alluring to constantly visit, what with its ancient magics running amok every icicle and frozen stream.

She froze Nokk's body in order to give his hooves purchase on the island, in case he was curious to say goodbye himself, but the water spirit had only whinnied and growled at the whispering magics in the icy divide. And then something about the memory room and touching a few mildly suspicious crystals of ancient wonder and that was the last of her memories before her current issue.

A strange old woman muttering a nonsensical language while applying bitter smelling herbs to her hair.

"What's going on?" Her voice cracked, as if not having spoken for ages. Elsa winced at the noise. Not from the throaty pain, but from the childishness from it. She sounded years younger. Not great for first impressions.

In Elsa's blurry sight, the foreign woman mumbled some more before clearing her throat and spelling out another ramble of mismatched vowels in a rather monosyllabic lure.

A foreign language. Great.

From her royal studies, she learned the five languages of the countries surrounding Arendelle, but never an eastern type language, which the lady seemed to be using.

"Do you speak English?" She tried, knowing the Northern Isles' language to have spread over a few Eastern lands from their constant adventuring. "How about... Snakker du dansk? Pratar du svenska? Ummm... Kan du nors - ?"

The woman shook her head throughout the exchange, and then said a few more words of her own language.

Well, then. Elsa coughed suddenly, feeling her lungs give out and a giant glub of blood choke its way out. The woman, wearing a uniquely styled robe and sticks in her bun, muttered something else and forced steaming tea into her mouth. Darkness engulfed her.

The next few months were interesting, to say the least.

The woman identified herself as "Mina," all while using gratuitous hand movements. Elsa did the same, except Mina couldn't quite pronounce her name correctly. It was either Erusa, or Erisa. She didn't mind too much, as mispronouncing her name was nothing against everything else Mina did for her. The old woman lived by herself in a small house in the mountains of a land Mina called "Land of Hot Springs." She was an apothecary who used the land to fuel her small business. After the first week, in the dawning of new spring, Elsa helped Mina pick special herbs at the top of the mountain that, if their hand movements proved right, helped with coughing. She learned different names of plants, animals, and forces of nature in the new language while Mina slowly but surely healed the rest of her body. She wasn't sure what had happened in Ahtohallan, but perhaps Nokk had rescued her injured self and drifted her body to one of the Eastern kingdoms. At least, that was the theory.

Until Mina taught her about maps.

The map of the world was far, far different than the one Elsa was used to seeing. She'd been emotional that day, furiously trying to quell her powers down as to not reveal herself in her grief. Perhaps more emotional than usual, because the ancient magic of Ahtohallan had somehow transformed her back into a younger version of herself, roughly seven or eight years old. A child could do little to hide their emotions, but Mina didn't seem to mind.

The spring passed and summer dawned on Mina's home. Elsa, after internalizing her grief and realizing there was nothing now except to move forward, returned to studying under Mina with a vigor. She mastered basic fluency of the languages, learned as much about the land and political geography as she could, and tried consuming herself under the new cultures. The people of the surrounding small villages, including Mina herself, had different facial features, but the coloring remained mostly the same. A lot of brunettes, black haired people, a few blonds, and a scant few other colors. The most surprising hair color she found had to be a shocking bright green from a passing traveler.

By the beginning of autumn, where crisp red and yellow leaves painted the mountains a variety of colors, Elsa became proficient enough in the new world that she almost felt like she belonged somewhere again. A blue kimono, her white hair done in a typical braid, and the basics of communication with her surroundings. Her twenty-first birthday passed by, and so did the end of the warm months. Winter thrashed down harshly on the mountainous upper regions of the Land of Hot Springs, so unlike the southern part of the country, abundant in hot springs and calm, rolling plains.

When the frail old apothecary didn't return back to their cozy little home hours after she said she'd return by, Elsa stopped reading her children's learning books and called back her haunting powers for the first time in what felt like decades. The magic sent a shiver down her spine, no pun intended, and she carved an icy sled out of the howling winds. The snow propelled her sled to where she knew Mina liked to pick winter berries, and within minutes, she found the frozen corpse of her only friend.

Her powers burst out like a dam, crystallizing, immortalizing her pain into treacherous spikes and spires and an elegant new tomb for beloved Mina. The permafrost set in on the corpse kept the woman's physical form in a life-like, still flushed state, but none would see Mina's forever still face, for Elsa sealed the grave shut with special glacier ice and sent the grave down, down, down, where no one would dare disturb the body. If not out of respect, then out of fear. A guard made of eternal ice and snow erupted out of being, set to forever guard the tomb from whoever trespass and disturb the silence. Even when the summer eventually came and melted away all the surrounding snow at the base of the mountains, the tomb and the guard would never melt away. Her magic and her grief made sure of it.

She took her worldly possessions, Mina's savings, and traveled South to the country's capital, Yugakure.

Perhaps after having lost her sister, her brother-in-law, her parents, and now Mina, Elsa would be well versed in maintaining healthy mindsets for grief. But no - she buried her emotions deep down inside and truly became as cold as ice.

* * *

The whole ninja part about the new world was rather concerning, but nothing to get hung up on. Having nothing better to do, she purchased an apartment at the edge of the city, as far away from the blistering hot spring attractions as she could (how come no one cared she, someone who looked like an eight year old, bought an apartment? What even was this?), and enrolled into the local school. A few kids picked on her for having an accent, but she was an adult and paid little heed to the taunts and teasing of kids. The winter passed calmly, as the blizzards and ice storms rarely traveled farther south than the mountains. When the spring blossomed again, this time, she enrolled herself into the ninja academy.

Most of her studies from before had been based around diplomacy, trade, and dealing with nations. In this world, all of that was useless, so restarting life as perhaps a guard for hire didn't seem too bad. Sure, there were a few wars here and there in the new world, dubbed the Elemental Nations, but it wasn't like Elsa sought out fame as a legendary ninja hero or whatever. She'd make due with making enough to support herself, then exploring the lands. Maybe making a nice living back in the mountains as a reindeer herder or something. The Land of Iron and the Land of Snow, farther up north, had climates she was more used to, but it didn't hurt to stay in the Land of Hot Springs.

What the civilians, like Mina, didn't know about ninja, was how terrible and gruesome their life actually was. In the classroom, a snotty little boy named Hidan tried picking fights with everyone, even going as far as bringing out a kunai knife and trying to gut someone out of spite. The classroom teacher (called a _sensei_) applauded the boy's bloodthirstiness, for whatever godforsaken reason! A weird motherly instinct wanted to take all the children out of the classroom and beat the teacher senseless, but she persevered and eventually learned how to mask her true intentions using the ninja emotional training.

Learning chakra the next semester was also pretty weird, almost clashing against her magic, but she quelled each power enough to begin to use the whole chakra thing effectively enough. Later on, in the privacy of her own apartment, she toyed around with the idea of mixing chakra and ice magic together. She formed an intricately designed knife out of ice, then forced a thrum of chakra through the blade. The ice glowed blue with power, but that was enough of that. She became busy working on her studies and bettering herself to become strong enough to survive out in the wild, where no one would dare bother her. Elsa could, of course, drop out of the ninja academy and do just fine on her own as a mildly powerful civilian, but that wouldn't really be enough in this new land. She heard stories of ninjas who stopped wars with their bare fists, ran at the speed of lightning, and even parted seas by barely moving a finger. Her powers over the cold were quite powerful, she knew, but compared to nothing when she couldn't create an impenetrable shield of ice if her opponent could just zoom all the way into her defenses in a fraction of a second. Elsa had secretly enjoyed the quiet isolation of her ice castle made after the events of her own coronation, and yearned for a life like that again. Not so important that leaving would have devastating effects (Arendelle would have survived without her because Anna would have become the queen, after her), but powerful enough to leave alone (again, what had Anna been thinking? Abandoning her kingdom to try to bring back a mildly psychotic magic wielding sister? Seemed terrible in hindsight, but Elsa was still eternally grateful for her baby sister's meddling).

In her free time at the academy, she sketched out the basic architecture of her kingdom in her notebook. A tower here, a tower there... Perhaps adding several more crystal chandeliers in the ball room because why not? This was her memory of Arendelle, it didn't matter if a few more extravagant decorative pieces were added for her own pleasure.

A hand grabbed at her notebook. Elsa immediately slapped the hand away and stashed everything back in her small school bag.

"That hurt, you little bitch," Seethed a voice she recognized. After putting everything away, she looked back up into the eyes of the troublesome Hidan. Citizens in her kingdom with violent tendencies were often sent out south to exile, to a correctional facility in one of Corona's provinces. Likewise, troubled citizens of the Kingdom of Corona were usually sent to work in Arendelle's brutal ice mining industry. She honestly believed that with enough help, Hidan could eventually develop into a fine young man.

Unfortunately, ninjas rarely sought out therapy or mental correction.

"Then don't try to steal my stuff," Elsa glared back. This was fine. She was nearing twenty one years of age and he was just a simple eight year old.

And eight year old with a kunai knife, at least. Which was really unfair, since weapons training started in their second year, not the first. Where'd he even get that stuff? An older brother? A cousin?

Hidan sniffed pointedly like the little brat he was and pulled out his shiny kunai knife from his belt. "Girls are supposed to apologize. I said that that hurt."

Everyone, including the classroom teacher, was playing outside during the lunch break. Elsa wanted to scream. "I'm sorry that it hurt," she grit out, carefully observing the knife.

The silver haired boy smirked. "That's a terrible apology. Do it again."

The resulting punch to the nose was never part of the plan, but it still felt good. Hidan clamored back, dropping his kunai knife in exchange for holding his hands over a broken nose gushing out a waterfall of blood.

"Don't mess with me," she warned, shaking away the vibrating sting of her bruised knuckles. This greasy little bastard reminded her of Hans, so she'd gladly punch him again.

The boy growled like a feral animal and pounced right onto her desk. Elsa leaped out of his reach and ran to the front of the classroom, where she could possibly run outside and - !

He yanked her braid back and punched her in the spine. A sharp fizzle of nerves racketed up her whole body and she whirled around to block the next underhanded punch. They brawled it out for a bit, until her tiny child arms couldn't handle the strain of the constant attack. The class had just started learning taijutsu that week, so it wasn't like Elsa had high hopes against the rapid boy, but she tried her best.

Until something hilariously stupid blurted out of Hidan's mouth. "I'm gonna kick your ass so hard that your entire family will feel it! Maybe I'll kick your siblings' asses, too! Got a brother or a sister you don't like?"

Needless to say, she ended up winning that fight out of sheer spite. It may have cost a few bad bruises and a possibly broken set of knuckles (they were probably fine), but she kept her family's honor, which was everything to her.

What she didn't expect to come out of the altercation, however, was Hidan's newfound respect for her. His first loss, he said the next day in class. He sported two ugly black eyes and a few loose teeth, but then he bullied her entire table to leave so that he could be the only one to sit next to her. The few girls she had become friendly with were scared away by the little brat, and Elsa gained a strange new rival.

If only she could just freeze his mouth off so he would never talk again.


	2. Flurry

**Ice and Snow**

**After Anna's coronation as queen, Elsa makes one last trip to Ahtohallan for closure. But messing with ancient magic often leads to disastrous results, and Elsa is catapulted through space and time to unfamiliar lands... as a child?**

**Chapter 2**

**Published:**

* * *

"Why aren't you bothered by this fucking weather?" Hidan snarled half at the winds, half at Elsa. It was sort of how he normally communicated, anyway.

Said person looked around the street, noticing the number of people bundled up in furs and and thick scarves. She, on the other hand, wore a simple loose kimono and stretchy pants. And the really ugly staple ninja shoes she desperately wanted to trade in for a nice pair of flats or fashionable deerskin boots. "Why are you? You look like a really fat bear."

Hidan spluttered. "What? No! I - I don't! You're just a fucking weirdo!"

Elsa scowled in return. Why did she hang out with him again?

"Oh yeah, is today a free for all or just taijutsu?"

Right. That.

She sniffed impetuously at him. "It's Thursday."

He clicked his tongue. "Free for all. Right. Hey, if you mess up my face again I'm gonna fucking rip your pretty hair right off your scalp."

After the first few weeks after their first brawl, Hidan pestered her until she finally exploded and agreed to another battle. And another. And another. And... Well, until they sparred about almost every day. She returned back to her apartment every day nurturing scars and bruises and scrapes. But as the months passed by, she noticed improvement in her stamina and her chakra reserves. Her reaction time and her senses increased tenfold to the point where she could feel it in her gut if a shuriken or a kunai knife was headed her way. Maybe she'd never be a master at her sense of smell, hearing, or sight, but she'd be damned if she wasn't as suspicious as a jounin from how many times Hidan liked to prank her with a left hook every so often.

They reached their designated training grounds after a few more poisonous jabs and immediately started pummeling each other. Fighting like this, where they aimed to actually hurt, was a little freeing. She could put as much effort as she wanted in her punches and kicks, and in turn she'd get thrown around like a rag doll. Almost like flying, really, if thrown far enough. The only unfortunate thing about fighting Hidan was that he always fought extremely dirty. Hair pulling, biting, spitting into the eyes... the list went on.

Hidan pulled off his bulky coat after enough heat had been generated from the fight. Elsa didn't enjoy feeling gross and sweaty, but it was a sacrifice she was willing to make. She didn't really have to care about her appearance anymore, since she wasn't a public figurehead anymore, but the ingrained vanity was hard to get rid of.

He finally pulled out his expansive kunai collection, to which Elsa responded by punching him in the face with a fist coated with chakra. She didn't really know any ninjutsu, being that they were only ten year olds in their third year, but she did know that coating anything in chakra made it hard as steel. Maybe adding a little bit of frostbite to her knuckles? Ooh, that'd definitely burn his skin and leave a mark for at least a week.

Unfortunately, the boy raised his guard just in time and she freezer burned part of his forearm. He jumped back. "Ow, what the shit? Are you using fire natured chakra now?"

In the end, he won the round by pushing her into a painful headlock. She did, however, freezer burn quite a few patches of skin off Hidan. He showed his gratefulness by shooting a shuriken at her the next day in class, during a history lesson. She blocked it with her own hidden kunai, of course. Third years and up could purchase weapons legally, according to the country's laws. She exploited that dearly at the start of the year and bought more than enough weapons for her own private army.

After their next fight, where Elsa managed to win their spar using her freezer burn hands to her advantage, they walked back in a cordial manner to the main road.

"Goddammit, bitch. How the fuck did you manage to infuse elemental chakra into your punches?" He asked in a surprisingly polite tone.

She glared at him and tried mimicking one of his infamous snarls to avoid talking. She didn't know how to use elemental chakra, and if even she learned to use it, she'd eat her own shoe if she ended up being fire natured. No freaking way.

The winter came and went, and then another spring bloomed in the Land of Hot Springs. She graduated from the third year class, and would start the fourth year class after the spring break. Why this world started their school in the spring, she didn't really understand.

The three weeks the students had been gifted for break seemed almost like _too much_ free time. But it was a perfect opportunity to check up on Mina's grave. The breaks she had spent in the capitol, visiting and exploring the touristy locations and trying not to melt from all the steam. But now, after three years? Elsa developed a good amount of maturity and coping habits to deal with revisiting such a depressing memory.

So she followed a merchant caravan up the main roads, eventually branching off after a few days' walk to head to the mountain route. Life as a royal had made her spoiled, she thought. Giant king sized beds, high ceilings, rich foods, fine silks and draperies. The freedom where she walked in a pair of simple wooden sandals and a cloth dress was, perhaps, not the type of freedom she had previously yearned for, but this was enough. More than enough. The wind whistled in her ears and the breeze lifted her hair in a ticklish manner.

"I wish you were here with me, Gale," Elsa whispered, humming along to the wind's delicate chimes.

"Ain't no one here," a nasally voice spat out from behind her. "No one 'round for at least fifty kilometers."

She turned around, reacting to the voice. She calmed her racing heartbeat with a simple unnoticeable breathing exercise. "Is that true? And who might you be?"

A group of three ragged men holding rusty katanas greeted her sight. The one in front, the presumed leader, jutted a hip and stretched his lips into a crooked smile. "Just someone makin' sure a little girl like you's alright."

Ronin. Missing Ninja. Or were they? She didn't see any slashed forehead protecters on any of them. Simple thugs, then? What a shame that she didn't even sense them. Hidan would beat her up about this if he knew a bunch of hooligan thugs managed to sneak up on her.

A thought came to her. "Hey, you said there no one around for 'at least fifty kilometers?'"

She didn't give them time to respond, immediately shooting a blast of concentrated snowflakes to the leader. And then another, and then a clear ice dome encasing the four of them to the one spot so the thugs couldn't run away.

One of the thugs whimpered. "We didn't know you were a ninja!"

"It's a morality of it," Elsa huffed out. "It shouldn't have mattered whether you were planning on robbing a ninja or a normal civilian - it's still theft, and that's still a crime!"

The leader rounded up his senses and swung down his katana. Elsa brought up her arm and created a shield of reinforced ice to block the swing, then gave the man a slight tap to his exposed midsection. His body froze instantly into a solid sculpture. The other two men attacked her sides, but she utilized her ninja training and swerved backwards with astounding flexibility before leaping out of the fray and into a safe few meters away. The men swung their katanas around wildly to regain their momentum, but she raised her arms and they were thus crystallized in a block of ice.

There. The thugs weren't quite dead, just... frozen. Likely for eternity, or until she ever felt like unfreezing them. Or would one of them die after their brains shut down from the lack of stimulus? She ignored that trail of thought and continued on her merry way.

She reveled in being able to play with her magic again, out of sight of the creepy ninja overlords in the main village. She made bright sparks appear from her fingertips and created little butterflies and somewhat sentient snow flowers that adorned her hair. With masterful flicks of her hand, she infused the shimmering magic into her kimono, creating a long and waving pure white kimono that cascaded and flowed like water off her body. Lacy ice glitter formed her dragging cape as she explored farther and farther north, back into Mina's lands. The temperature cooled in the higher climate, and traces of frost and muddy snow remained at the abandoned mountain home that used to belong to the elderly woman.

She conjured a bouquet of tulips, steeled her mind, and skated over to her grave by making the path to her burial site covered in a firm layer of ice. She was greeted with an unexpected sight.

Her giant ten foot tall formal soldier wielding a shield and sword was still intact, yes, and the massive tombstone and miniature decorations were still there, yes... but in the small clearing's perimeter were several rickety wooden structures similar to temples.

Upon closer inspection, she realized them to be shrines with several fresh offerings. Bottles of fine plum sake, baskets of flowers, and assortments of gelatinous sweets. They were built at such locations that the guard wouldn't think to disturb them but they'd still be visible to anyone standing besides the tomb. Elsa didn't know what to think of it besides turning the four shrines into fancy ice structures, multi ringed snowflakes centering the bases. Given the freshness of the flowers, these offerings had to be less than a day old. Perhaps from the nearby villages? She dispelled the guard, knowing well enough that no one would disrespect Mina's resting place by now. She sent a firework of white sparks into the air, which then sprinkled unlimited snowfall onto the grounds, forming a mini winter wonderland to the edge of the pine trees encircling the perimeter of the clearing.

She gathered all the bouquets of flowers from the shrines and turned them into permanent crystalline figures to add to her own snowy tulips to place at the foot of Mina's grave. And then went back to her cottage of warm memories and bitter herbs to rest.

The next morning, she tinkered around with creating mystical objects of sorts, like a wizard's belongings from ancient legends back in her previous world. A fallen branch of cedar turned into a sleek white staff with a blue crystal at its top, a collection of bark chips turned into a spiky crown of glistening ice, and several snowflake designs sewed themselves into her dress. Elsa might not have been the Queen of Arendelle anymore, but she still reigned over the mighty winter.

The faint amounts of chakra embedded into her snow alerted her senses about a person approaching the burial site and shrines. She skated the way to the tomb, enjoying the fluffy snow still raining down from the eternal puffy white clouds above the area. She left no footprints as she glided to the forefront of the tomb, where the crystal flowers lay undisturbed.

A very small chakra signature... no, two signatures... awaited at the edge of the clearing. Elsa heard a woman's voice hitch in surprise.

"H - Hello!" They stuttered out.

Elsa turned around gracefully and saw a young pregnant woman holding a woven basket of fresh, dethorned roses. The woman was no more than a simple peasant under one of the surrounding feudal lords under the daimyo's farmland in the nearby villages, judging from her worn colorless kimono and shapeless fur shawl.

Elsa nodded in acknowledgement. "Are you the one providing offerings to the shrines?"

The woman gulped. "Umm... Yes. I pick fresh flowers every other day for your offerings."

So the nearby villagers thought whoever created the ice tomb to be a snow spirit? Namely, her? "Thank you," Elsa numbly accepted, weighing in her mind what the next best course of action would be.

And then it hit her. "Spread the word to your village and your surroundings villages," she said gently, her voice hardly above a whisper. "To respect the coming cold, and to honor the person buried here. The next time I visit, I will make certain the winter does not disturb any of the farmers' fields."

Using the half learned substitution jutsu from class, she tugged her chakra in a backwards direction and appeared to have disappeared from the pregnant lady's line of sight with just a gust of snowflakes.

* * *

Later on, as a fourth year academy student, Elsa knew that she'd be learning much more heavily about specializations and actual jutsu type techniques. While Yugakure wasn't renown for its ninja, it was known for its diplomacy and its close ties with its citizens. The ninjas were mostly posted as guards around the borders to assure its people that they were needed for protection against possibly hostile border countries. Needless to say, she fully expected the whole ninja thing to be banned from the country within the next decade or so. Due to this prediction, she sucked up all the knowledge she could from the academy teachers and all other resources. It didn't hurt to be the best student. Definitely had some perks, like not having to clean up the classroom after activities or not having to complete a few boring assignments.

Hidan vied for her position as part of their rivalry. He often tried making sure to hit harder than usual during class mandated taijutsu spars to claim her throne or complete a test as fast as possible. Which didn't make much sense, since he never checked his answers, but whatever.

She enjoyed his fruitless struggles to best her, unknowing that she had over a decade on him. But their constant, tireless training and abrupt spars eventually led to the classroom teacher pulling them aside one day and asking if they wanted to graduate early.

"Look," Hitomi-sensei sighed. "It's barely the first month out of your fourth year, but you're definitely better than most of the graduating class. Your classmates feel anxious around you two. It'd be better for everyone if you skipped ahead."

Hidan whooped and punched her in the arm, definitely leaving a bruise. Elsa didn't like the idea of skipping grades, but it wasn't like she could just let Hidan outshine her. She had a reputation to upkeep.

The next day in May, they moved on to the graduating class alongside a bunch of twelve and thirteen year olds. They, as a ten and eleven year old, didn't have comparable body sizes to their classmates, and were subjugated to starting at the bottom ring of the taijutsu tournaments. They moved up to the final bracket, of course, and Elsa completely pummeled Hidan in her cheeky victory. He threatened to stab her the next day, but all was fine.

They learned basic D-rank ninjutsus in an incredible rate, completely demolishing the academy training posts and mandated outdoor field tests. When Hidan finally achieved his growth spurt and unfairly towered over Elsa, she abused how gangly and awkward his new kata stances became and established her dominance in taijutsu even further. His chakra reserved were much higher, however, and he outlasted her in all ninjutsu training. He was still pretty dumb, though, which was what she mainly counted on to be ahead of his class score.

And when the autumn break came about, she darted off back to the northern mountains to see if the villagers kept their promise.

She ran to the mountains in less than a day, and let free her magic in the air. Her dress transformed once again into a regal ice queen's wear, and she gathered her bejeweled diadem and staff from Mina's abandoned cottage and checked up on her gravesite.

A handful of children were playing in the snow, making snowmen and hitting each other with fluffy snowballs. They dropped everything when they saw her approach, but she simply knelt down to the nearest child and conjured a sentient rabbit to jump in their arms. She conjured more rabbits and baby reindeer to distract the playing children as she inspected each and every shrine. Loads of winter flowers and dried herbs lined the snowflake centerpieces, alongside fresh red apples and more plum sake.

Elsa told the children to eat the apples before she wandered over to the nearest village.

Surely enough, the late autumn weather translated to sharp and bitter winds that wrecked delicate leaves and buds of farmer's crops. Elsa sent a constant stream of glittering sparks into the air, forcing the ferocious weather to calm down. Once the winds quelled, all the surroundings civilians in the fields turned their heads to spot her pure white dress flow through the town square. This part of the country was very ninja free, so she unclogged the main well at the square's epicenter from the consuming frost.

"Great Snow Spirit!" A portly old man wearing formal robes shouted. "Allow us to be your most humble hosts."

She glided over to him, each step crystallizing a snowflake in her wake. "Are you the leader of this town?"

His head bobbed up and down. "Yes, that would be me. I am Takahashi, the village elder."

"I am no spirit," she allowed herself to say. "But I am, however, the queen of ice and snow. I will not rule over your lands like a tyrant, but I will check up on the village to make sure all of its people are treated equally and with deserved respect."

She did this with all the surrounding mountain villages, even creating more snow and ice rabbits and reindeer to roam the lands like real animals, but to activate her senses at the first light of intruding danger.

It was at the end of November of that year did a snow reindeer alert her. A small ping vibrated in her mind - from her magic, not her chakra - in the middle of the lunch period. Deciding that skipping a day or two of school wouldn't affect her ranking all that much, she simply ran out of the building, out far enough from the village walls, and then created a giant snowy swan to ride on the way to the mountain.

The western village to the mountains was being attacked by a traveling bandit tribe. This small village had stone and wooden walls to keep out wild animals, but its simple wooden gate was steadily being broken apart by the dozens of bandits. Elsa jumped down from the sky, right onto the rapidly deteriorating gate. The citizens of the town cheered at the sight of her, but the bandit tribe sneered and simply refrained from throwing their rocks to demand why a little girl thought to arrogantly stop them from raiding.

Elsa simply responded by raising her arms and sending magic flurries to blow the tribesmen away. With grace from taijutsu training, she backflipped off the gate into the parameters of the town, then slammed a palm to the half broken in gate. With a gust of power, the entire gate transformed into glittering white opaque crystal with a massive twelve fractal snowflake on each door. The timid walls around the small collection of buildings and homes turned into ice and snow, creating three watchtowers and stairs and outwardly jutting ice spikes. Each intricate design added another gasp of delight to the huddling townspeople behind her.

"No amount of heat shall melt the walls," Elsa announced to the crowd behind her. "And no weapon will ever be able to pierce through the gates. The ice is impenetrable."

She heard someone gasp out "Yuki-onna!"

"I am not a snow spirit," she promised. "My name is Erisa. The mountains are my home, and everyone under my domain will be protected."

Later on, after the bandits finally gave up attacking the gates, she conferred with the village elders on how to best serve as a protectorate. She created two ten foot tall soldiers to stand outside the village gates, not dissimilar to the golem that used to guard Mina's grave. She commanded their sentient magic to protect the village from anything trying to enter the gates when they were closed. It was nearing midnight by the time she finished the last fortifications for the village, and she gladly accepted to sleep in one of the elder's homes.

The next morning, she went around the other four surrounding villages and did the same, speaking about bandit protections and having a safer place for merchants. She finally got back to Yugakure at the end of the week, her powers practically vibrating out her hands from the huge release of magic after a long period of avoidance. Hidan jutted a finger in her face when she finally arrived back in class, demanding to know where she'd been. The teacher didn't care too much, but her ranking dropped down to number three in the time being. Hidan, as number five, was still infuriated that he couldn't beat her yet, but she just ignored his inane rambles and shouts.

Within the next few weeks leading up to graduation, whispers of a mystical snow spirit protecting the country's northern provinces made its way down to the southern cities.

She found herself a little mad that the villagers called her a snow spirit when _she freaking told them she wasn't._.. but that was another matter.


	3. Freeze

**Ice and Snow**

**After Anna's coronation as queen, Elsa makes one last trip to Ahtohallan for closure. But messing with ancient magic often leads to disastrous results, and Elsa is catapulted through space and time to unfamiliar lands... as a child?**

**Chapter 3**

**Published:**

* * *

Elsa and Hidan breezed through the graduation exam. Displaying mastery over basic ninjutsu, dispelling a D-rank genjutsu, and a timed taijutsu spar against their classroom teacher? Piece of cake. Writing an essay on the basic theories of peace time treatises? She'd been doing this since she could walk. Receiving her forehead protector filled her with immeasurable joy. She wanted to jump, shout, and scream in pride. But there was no family to celebrate with her, nor any Mina to smile and offer wise words of advice. Her mood diminished the slightest, but she still tied the blue strip of cloth and metal around her waist overtop her obi sash.

There weren't many orphans in the country, as Land of Hot Springs was a very rich country and most displaced children could be taken under the care of a family member or under an apprenticeship type home service to a rich noble and their entourage. She and Hidan were the only children to not be out celebrating their graduation with a parent out in the gymnasium. That was fine. She didn't really like her classmates all that much anyway - too bloodthirsty. Speaking of which, Hidan kept talking about his master plan to become an S-class shinobi.

"I'll be the strongest in the entire country!" He boasted, rubbing the metal on his forehead protector along the engravings of their village insignia.

Elsa offered a crooked smile. "You need to beat me in a spar at least five times in a row for that to ever happen."

She narrowly avoided the soaring punch.

"Look at all these puny chumps and their sheep parents," he snarled, gesturing to their graduating class. "Why the fuck are they so proud to show off to their birthgivers, anyway? They'll probably die in the field in the next war."

"What makes you think there's going to be a war in our generation?" Elsa asked. "The third great ninja war was literally just one decade ago."

He flipped the unknowing crowd of happy parents the bird and responded. "There's always gonna be war. Fighting and bloodshed are in our nature. It's what makes us human."

She thought about how easy war came about between the kingdoms in her previous war. A simple act of fear led to years of battling between the Northundra people and the Arendelle soldiers. The kingdoms of Arendelle and Corona in their ancient beginnings fought for at least a century before finally agreeing to peace negotiations. "Much can be said about the opposite," she defended diplomatically. "But hush, you. The ceremony's starting."

The ninja academy principle and the leader of Yugakure arrived on stage to give a speech about the future generation and peace. Hidan cursed under his breath during all the peace talks and Elsa sorely itched to slap him.

The ceremony ended without much bravado, and the first thing the duo did after it ended was race to their training grounds and pummel each other to the hard packed dirt. Hidan let out an inhumanely high pitched squeak when her shuriken scratched the surface of his forehead protector at which she laughed at him for a full minute before he gathered his emotions together and gave her a black eye.

Yugakure was too small of a ninja village to deploy jounin as sensei for genin, unlike other nations she read about, but all forces were formed into platoons for guard rotation. The first two months after becoming genin, Hidan and Elsa continued their unsaid training together, knowing that the other partner kept the other one their toes and improved their skills at a rapid pace. They bribed a chunin that lived in Elsa's apartment building to give them pointers on more advanced techniques, and soon mastered tree walking, water walking, and other similar exercises.

In the middle of June, they found their skills capping without any guidance from an actual teacher, so then they registered to be placed in a platoon. Elsa didn't know why she registered for the same guard shift as Hidan since he was literally the most annoying person she'd ever met, but perhaps he'd grown on her.

Like a fungus. Or a parasite.

At the end of the month, they were inducted into the eighteen member platoon zero-zero-eight-three. They settled along the border where the country met the sea - a rather pretty area, really - and her shift alongside Hidan and six others lasted from midnight to eight a.m. Unsavory times to be bored as heck, since it was almost unheard of for their country to be infiltrated. The Land of Hot Springs really only had two things: rich people and hot springs. Nobody really considered the cold mountainous north part of the country anymore - more like a sovereign nation under its kingdom. Rarely visited, most noted for its rabbit stews and somewhat hearty crops.

In her guard rotation, she and Hidan were the only rookies, but there were three other genin and the remaining were chunin.

"Hoshimaru-senpai, would you like to spar with me?" she asked a week into their deployment. The twenty year old chunin looked over his shoulder.

"Erisa-san, you're a genin," he said. "I don't think it'd be wise to spar with a chunin."

Her eyebrow twitched. "I graduated top of my class," she prompted. "I can handle myself."

He smiled. "Top of the class and real life don't equate very well. But if you're so eager, then I'll agree to the spar."

At the end of the shift and the next group replaced their positions, Elsa and Hoshimaru ran out to the sea as to not disturb any of the watchers.

"Your water walking is surprisingly steady," he noted. "But can you fight on water?"

She rolled her shoulders back. "Ready when you are."

Then he lunged forward. And holy heck was a chunin _fast. _She barely had time to lift her guard up before his kick plummeted up against her. The force pushed her back a good two meters and she growled in frustration. They exchanged a series of blows that had Elsa's muscles trembling from exertion. _So early in the spar and I'm already tired_, she thought.

Her pride wanted her to win, even though a genin winning against a chunin was an arrogant hope, at best. She cursed her former arrogance. "Whoa, Hoshimaru-senpai. Chunin are really strong."

Before he could respond, Elsa decided to pull out something she'd hidden for years: her magic.

She rationalized pulling out her big cards at this simple spar for one reason: she was an official ninja now. Nothing to really hide from officials as a citizen anymore. There were a few hidden rumors about other nations stealing kids with kekkai genkai from their beds, but was she really a kid anymore? Stealing a ninja from a country's premises could spark a war, and it wasn't like whatever power hungry kage would want to start something that serious over one little kid.

Elsa raced forward and threw a punch to the man's abdomen. He blocked it, of course, but that wasn't the point. All she needed was skin to skin contact. His blocking fist immediately turned to ice.

"What the fuck?!" He shouted, immediately jumping back to watch the frost and ice growing up his arm.

She laughed. "If you keep moving like that, you might break your arm off, senpai."

And so the match went into her favor.

After reversing the effects of the freezing, he rubbed at his restored arm and whistled. "I didn't know Yugakure had a Yuki clan kid."

"...No? I'm not part of any clan."

He hummed. "Got any family from Kirigakure?"

Seeing how her roots weren't even from this world, she could safely say no. "Definitely not. I'm just good at experimenting with jutsu."

Apparently Hidan had been watching their short match from the shore, because she saw an angry silver haired boy waiting to curse her out for hiding such powers from him. Hoshimaru laughed at his huffing and bidded them a short "see ya later."

Hidan immediately leaped forward to attack. "What the fuck?! You were hiding an ice jutsu from me? I'm gonna fucking beat you up!"

Without thinking, she twirled her arms and made three snow golems erupt from the sea. The creatures howled menacingly, their icicle claws and fangs already reaching out to gnaw off a limb or two. He deflected their attacks, but the struggle was visible. She settled in a nearby tree and watched the fight play out.

After an hour and half of his futile struggle against the ever self-generating golems, Elsa finally took pity on the foul mouthed boy and cancelled the imbedded magic inside them. The snow instantly fell into giant lumps, soaking Hidan's clothes wet with the quickly melting material. His body was too torn up to walk upright back to their base, so she slung his limp body over her shoulders and strolled back.

Unfortunately, his mouth did not tire as much as his body.

"How much chakra can a bitch like you even have? I thought I knew your capacity limits because I always beat you in ninjutsu class!" He protested. "And your regenerating golems are such a cheat. I will literally cut you into a million little pieces!"

"Yeah, good luck doing that with your tiny little kunai," she retorted.

(She should not have taunted him like that, since his next weapon was seven feet tall and wickedly scary)

* * *

Platoon zero-zero-eight-three's guard rotation ended after three months. Due to being out of the village for so long, she had moved out of her tiny apartment before being deployed, and now slept in the central ninja barracks along with the rest of her minimal belongings. Because privacy was a core part of her personality, she immediately spent her guard job money and bought a small traditional house at the edge of the village. And in order to pay the mortgage and the rest of the bills, she went on D-rank and C-rank missions. The D-rank chore missions paid very well, being that many inhabitants of the area were filthy rich, and the C-rank ones even better.

However, genin weren't allowed to complete C-ranks by themselves, so she begrudgingly went on ones with Hidan or a vague acquaintance. The acquaintances in her minimal social circle became vaguer and vaguer until she spent almost all her waking hours alongside her rotten mouthed friend.

Was he a friend? Probably. She didn't like him all that much, but he could be depended upon on missions and she knew his fighting style better than the back of her hand.

Three months later, she went on another three month guard duty - this time, at a place between the border of her country and the Land of Fire. Unlike the last time, she couldn't train or practice her abilities while manning this guard post due to the close proximity to another country. Thus, when she went back on break, she was told by a courier chunin to practice starting immediately for the upcoming chunin exams, for someone had nominated her for entry.

Frick. Well. Maybe about time? She had dozens of D and C rank missions under her belt with a perfect completion record.

Hidan had been given the same news - participate in the next chunin exams in the Land of Lightning, do your best, blah blah blah - so they unleashed their worst against each other for the month leading up to the exam.

Hidan found his niche in their training. Bukijutsu. He had always been a bloodthirsty little bastard, but now he drew as much blood as his heart desired. Elsa upgraded her outfit around his incredible skill wielding sharp, pointy objects. Namely, by removing her flowy kimono sleeves and adding skin tight mesh armor to all her limbs. Her bukijutsu ability also grew, mostly due to the fact that she could create physical weapons in a blink of an eye. He called her ice conjuration a complete hack, but didn't question the physics behind her magic. Perhaps she was lucky to be placed in a ninja village that didn't care much about mysterious new abilities in their soldiers, unlike the strong and suspicious military forces like the Hidden Cloud or the Hidden Leaf.

She created lances, spears, swords, scythes, and more. Hidan tried wielding one of her floating chain scythes, but only ended up with a mild case of freezer burn where his hand touched the staff part. For some strange reason, he kept insisting on trying to wield her ice weapons until she finally caved in and bought him a pair of gloves. With bandages underneath for an extra measure of safety.

Gosh, that boy would never learn.

Hidan requested a giant six foot tall double sided scythe, at which he dubbed his "first design," making Elsa want to scream at his nightmarish imagination, but at least their spars became more intense. She, herself, preferred wielding pole or staff weapons, like halberd or spears. Possibly because spears were the traditional weapons of Arendelle's ancestors.

They were covered in scars, bumps, and scrapes from their bukijutsu training and ended up being the most bandage covered genin in the entourage to Kumogakure when the Chunin Exam finally rolled around.

They were also the youngest, which did nothing for her confidence.


	4. Glaze

**Ice and Snow**

**After Anna's coronation as queen, Elsa makes one last trip to Ahtohallan for closure. But messing with ancient magic often leads to disastrous results, and Elsa is catapulted through space and time to unfamiliar lands... as a child?**

**Chapter 4**

**Published:**

* * *

"Samui of Kumogakure versus Erisa of Yugakure!" The match proctor, a mature dark-skinned man that reminded Elsa of Lieutenant Mattias, exclaimed.

A chalky skinned blonde teenager stared Elsa down impassively. "It would be very uncool if I lost against a child," the Kumo genin muttered before starting her first attack.

A tanto user. Elsa frowned and leaped back, not all confident fighting against a small short range weapon. Hidan and her practiced with throwing knives or bulky weapons, nothing with rapid jabs like a tanto. Or anything smaller than a katana, really. Instead of engaging, she snapped her fingers to send glittering magic into the air and an army of sentient armor clad soldiers shimmered into existence.

While Samui engaged the soldiers, tearing through them at a faster rate than was good for her blood pressure, Elsa wracked her mind for a plan. A kunoichi who imbued lightning chakra into her tanto, tearing through golems at a faster rate than they could regenerate. Obviously, speed had to be Samui's forte. Speed and accuracy. No big hitters, most likely.

Then Elsa would give her opponent something she couldn't run away from.

She slammed her foot against the dirt packed ground of the arena, and froze everything. All motion on the battlefield stopped. Samui became nothing but a statue, frozen in time, stuck in a position of swinging her tanto down on a snow golem. She dispelled all her soldiers from the field in a lazy wave and examined her work. Sure, it brought back bad memories of when she accidentally froze Anna, but she knew how to fix that now.

The proctor zoomed down from his place on the stadium walls. "Is Samui-san dead, Erisa-san?" He asked in a monotonous tone.

Elsa tapped Samui's ice head. "Nope. But I'm the only one who can reverse her, else she ends up being a mannequin for the rest of eternity."

"Erisa of Yugakure wins!" The crowds cheered, although not as loud as they did to their own native winners. Elsa reversed Samui's petrification, inching away from the badly hidden glares the teen later sent her.

To which Kumogakure wasn't doing so well. Hidan won his semifinal bracket and now the two Hidden Hot Spring genin were the contestants for the Hidden Cloud's tournament. That had to hurt.

After a mini intermission, where all the nobles placed their final bets and trade deals went down based on how which ninja village had the best representation, Hidan and Elsa's final round started.

"Alright, motherfucker!" He shouted crudely. "Now it's time to see who's the better fighter, once and for all!"

Elsa lifted her hands in preparation. "You're the better fighter, no doubt. But I'd like to think that I'm the better ninja."

Was she strong? Sure. Was she smart? Not terribly. But was she ungodly paranoid about nearly everything? Extremely. In a one on one weapons or taijutsu fight, Hidan had grown strong enough to beat her the majority of the time. Darn his growth spurts. But in everything else? Elsa could out common sense that poor boy without him even realizing.

But because life wasn't worth living without a little fun, she conjured a massive snow golem to distract him (and maybe scare him. Just a little). While Hidan fought the golem, she ran up the arena wall to gain vantage point height.

"Oi, come back and fight me like you mean it!" Hidan accused wildly, pointing his (her!) ice scythe at her position. The golem responded for her by swatting Hidan back into the opposing wall like a fly. She winced at the second hand pain, but never relented.

Besides, expanding upon her powers showcased a definite chance for promotion. The former queen regent slammed her hands against the walls, sending her magic into the entire structure of the arena. Down at base level, the magic spiraled underneath Hidan's feet, forming the silhouette of her iconic snowflake, before the snowflake glyph propelled the boy upwards, straight into the looming jaws of her golem. The snow creature closed its mouth and swallowed, then plopped down on its butt to wait for Hidan's protests.

A minute later, he burst out of the stomach by adding his wind elemental chakra to a kunai knife. The ice scythe abandoned in the monster's gut, Hidan finally pulled out the big guns and released waves of sharp winds from his chakra augmented kunai edges. While nobody really bothered to teach the duo any actual ninjutsu above C-rank, they experimented enough with elemental chakra natures to add it to self taught bukijutsu. He yelled victoriously and finally ran over to attack Elsa instead of the golem. Finally.

"You're going down!" Hidan proclaimed, swinging his glowing knife maniacally.

She sent a wall of pointy icicles in his direction, but he simply maneuvered and contorted his body to avoid the shots in a mildly impossible display of flexibility. Another stomp, and the ground became a lake of ice. He slipped comically on his back from the sudden shift in environments, and Elsa took advantage of his surprise by raising a medium sized cylindrical platform of ice from the ground, perhaps ten meters off the ground. The remaining arena turned into deadly spikes of glacier ice. Her opponent charged straight ahead in his usual blunder, and she created an ice axe to redirect the attack... except his wind chakra cut through the weapon, breaking it in half.

"Oh, f - !" Elsa barely dodged his next attack, accounting for the added length from the chakra. "You know what? Playing fair is too hard."

And then she simply froze him.

"Erisa of Yugakure wins the final round!"

* * *

Elsa and Hidan ended up being promoted to chunin at the ripe age of eleven. Or, twenty-four, in her case. He wore his chunin vest everyday, even when his fighting style favored full range of motion where the bulky vest did nothing but impede him. As chunin, they were able to complete C-ranks on their own, and could even team up to complete B-ranks. As their pay increased, so did their ninja tools. Hidan saved up enough to buy a giant tripe pronged scythe - a complete disaster to spar against - while Elsa invested in higher quality basic equipment. As their fighting styles and bodies matured, so did Hidan's mental state. Well, he still had the foulest mouth Elsa ever had the displeasure of acquainting with, but at least he refrained from trying to beat up everyone he encountered.

Character growth?

And after Elsa's thirteenth (twenty-sixth!) birthday, Yugakure finally made the shift from a military nation to a civilian one. The nation demilitarized in a hazardous process, pulling out border guard funding and solely investing the economy into tourist and business conglomerates. The entire process took months, months in which Elsa gladly moved out her little home and back to the mountains. She sold the property for a rich sum (real estate was not cheap anymore), turned in her forehead protector back to the government, denounced her legal status as a ninja, and went back to Mina's quaint cottage.

The sovereign northern state of the Land of Hot Springs had built more shrines and amenities since Elsa last visited.

She hiked all the way up to the peak of the tallest mountain and watched over the hundreds of landscapes and houses and trees dotting the ground below. In the late autumn, the farmers were busy with their final harvest, so she made sure to dispel harsh incoming winter winds and sleet around the crops. Towards the midpoint of the hike, she replanted her magic into the snow and reimagined a majestic ice caste. This time, it'd be larger and grander. Towers, flying buttresses, rib vaults depicting snowflakes between the arches, barrel vaults holding secret staircases leading to rose windows, and sleek winter animal gargoyles. Snow hares, reindeer, snowy owls, arctic foxes, wolves.

She rose the creation out of the sloped clearing on the mountain, carving a ballroom into the side of the mountain more ornate than Ahtohallan's memory chamber. The main entrance held a tempanum depicting the elegantly crafted face of all those she cared for in her previous world - Anna, mother, father, even Kristoff, and, to an extent, Sven. Flamboyant gothic spires jutted out into the high winds.

Her clothes transformed into sparkling white flowing robes, a spiked crown, and an endless gentle whirl of snowflakes left in her wake. She was queen regnant not of Arendelle, but of ice and snow. She reigned over bitter cold winds and endless winters. But she did not subject any of the mountain's citizens to harsh weather. She unfroze their autumn crops and allowed for their harvest to bare all of its food, not wanting farmers to worry about overworking to prevent from their fields from freezing over.

Elsa lived alone in her castle, carving out human necessities, such as bathrooms and mink fur blankets to create comfortable beds. Fresh water flowed from the peaks in special tubes and aqua ducts into little waterfalls and fountains all about. And, of course, the flowing waters served another purpose: training.

Every day, she'd hone her skills by practicing katas on the rippling waters, assuring that her chakra never stopped improving in accuracy.


	5. Gloss

**Ice and Snow**

**After Anna's coronation as queen, Elsa makes one last trip to Ahtohallan for closure. But messing with ancient magic often leads to disastrous results, and Elsa is catapulted through space and time to unfamiliar lands... as a child?**

**Chapter 5**

**Published: 2020.01.03**

* * *

By the time Elsa's body turned fifteen, people began to carefully investigate her territory. No ninja, thank goodness, but several children played innocent snowball fights and snowman building contest at the base of her castle. A few careful mothers visited now and then to watch over their kids playing, but Elsa reassured all the concerned adults by telling the village councils that her golems and snow animals watched over the entirety of the land.

On one occasion, a child fell into a small but deep spring at the base of the mountain. Thankfully, one of her magical reindeer had lifted the screaming child out with its heavy antlers. After that incident, more and more people began to trust the animals. From her private residence, she oversaw a variety of people mining bits of ice from her frozen lakes during the hot summer days. Whenever someone passed by the actual grand doors, they always made sure to respectfully bow, as if her soul incarnate was contained in the actual castle itself. Which,_ no_, but she still appreciated the actions.

It was a fine spring morning when a steady noise pounded at the front doors. Her honed senses picked up the vibrations from all the stories down, but she remained in her upper throne room, lounging in her majestic throne of glacier ice. She tapped her foot on the ground, and connected the magic sparks to order to two standing sentries by the entrance to open the gates. They opened with heavy creaking - perhaps she'd need to design doors that cooperated under lower friction later - and the five people gasped once they took their first steps inside. From the sound of their voice and their manner of walking, she assumed the five to be old men.

Several minutes later, the five main village elders from the surrounding lands of the mountain range entered her upper throne room. She felt elegant, regal, and queenly, seeing the men humbly bow in her presence while she sat on a beautiful glassy throne.

"Erisa-sama," they bowed. "We appreciate that you have let us into your home."

Elsa smiled tentatively. "It's no matter. Nobody's ever tried before, so I'm actually kind of glad that you five are brave enough to."

Haruhito, the elder of the village down to the south side, broke the chain of bowing. "Erisa-sama, given your approval, the townspeople of northern Land of Hot Springs would like to delegate you as our leader."

She raised an eyebrow, unable to hide her surprise. "A daimyo? You want me to be your daimyo? How do the local noble lords feel about this?"

As it turned out, the local lords had all signed a lengthy paper alongside all the village elders about their feelings for her to ascend to leadership. She examined the entirety of the scroll, double checking that she wasn't being duped into something against her will. Well, becoming a queen regnant of sorts and ruling over people again stirred up some uncomfortable memories of feeling trapped, but she pushed that aside. If this many people wanted her to lead, then she couldn't exactly say no.

By the end of the spring, she relented to the wishes of the people, thus beginning negotiations to claim independence from the rest of the country. She met with the daimyo of the Land of Hot Springs and argued and battled over trade routes and roads and land territories for the better part of a month.

Finally, after tiresome battles and the complete support of half the country, the Land of Hot Springs daimyo agreed, mostly based on the fact that the harsh northern areas weren't tourist attractions like the southern geothermic pools and that maintaining the territory caused a drain on his resources. When Elsa was finally crowned as the daimyo of the new land, the Land of Ice,_ Kori no Kuni, _she was a bit at a loss for her first action.

Several other countries and daimyos reached out to welcome the new royal via letters and messengers, but she denied the subtle hints at wanting to meet in person. Or, not denied, but deflected the official meeting date until the next year. Until then, she planned on focusing all her attention to her country. With bountiful farmland, fresh water from the mountains, thick and rich forests, and an abundance of furry animals, the Land of Ice could afford to close its borders until a proper and sustainable government had been formed.

As the village in the southern region was the largest by several thousand more people, the five elders and Elsa unanimously decided to build the major city upon the already formed settlements. She began opening trade with the Land of Hot Springs of legumes and grain in exchange for metals and building materials in order to create a magnificent new city. Haruhito, the south village's main elder, renamed his village to Minami, for its south position. The village east to the majority of the mountain range also dubbed themselves in new cardinal points, Azuma. The west village followed as Nishi, and the two northern port villages named themselves Hokusei and Hokuto. Hokusei, just fifty kilometers from the Land of Rice Paddies, established under Elsa's command to begin trade with their closest port city. Hokusei traded its fresh produce via ship in return for silks, fabrics, and spices.

Hokuto, however, specialized in the fishing industry. Elsa hadn't mingled much with the northwestern village, since they hadn't needed much protection nor aid. No pirates or sea dwelling thugs attacked the area, as Gaikotsu Bay, which opened to the ocean, shared borders with the Land of Lightning two countries to the east and the Land of Iron two countries to the west. Those two military powerhouses kept pirates off the entire bay's shores.

With the influx of wealth coming from the taxes from the people and the good trade deals, Elsa spent money building thick powder snow lined roads to intersect the mountain range and surrounding areas so that the Land of Ice's citizens could travel a good deal easier. Extra material from Minami's construction sites were donated to Hokuto in order for them to build better fishing boats.

By the end of the year, she had more money than she knew what to do with. Her palace didn't require nearly as much upkeep than other countries', and it wasn't like she had a luxurious hobby to spent millions on. Her country really only had five villages, so taxation and keeping the people under check became almost scarily easily.

Arendelle's immediate kingdom had been small, yes, but they governed over a much larger area of land, expanding from sea to sea. They ruled over thousands of isthmuses and islands, where nearly half a million residents made up the kingdom. They were the third largest kingdom, behind Corona's population of three million, and Chillon, Prince Eric's home with a population of nearly one million residents. The Land of Ice had didn't even have a hundred thousand citizens!

The money kept piling up and up so Elsa built many free public amenities for her people. A completely government funded school for ages six to sixteen in each city - literacy was important! and very telling of what kind of country hers was - a college in Minami, where the accepted applicants, if needed, were provided free dorms to stay in, and other little institutions. Several ice skate rinks because she just couldn't resist, a few ice museums scattered around the country, and a several patches of forest here and there stuck in eternal winter.

In order to connect with her people more, she build the city Chuo completely out of ice and snow at the base of her castle. A flat snow and stone path led down to a glamorous city of white, where ten foot walls fortified its entirety in order to shield buildings and pedestrians from getting blown away by the surrounding mountains winds. She didn't completely expect people to have permanent residence in her snow village, but slowly and surely, second and third sons of families traveled to her to find work. She housed them in the village and they hunted alongside her golems to humanize the insides of their new homes. Not everyone could sleep on ice like her, so they brought in cedar trees and used the lumber to build basic furniture and beds. She trained a dozen of the young men to work in her castle, where they added blueprint designs to a hollowed rock interior servant's lounge, teaching her to direct her ice this way and that for optimal water flow and plumbing.

She imbued slow amounts of chakra and energy into her snowfall and walls, so that no one could even touch the cold without her knowing. With the borders still closed (minus the trading ships and caravans) and the Land of Ice's status as a neutral civilian country, no other leaders had demanded her justified attention or decided to invade her borders. Thus, all the walls around all the towns may have been overboard protection, but better safe than sorry?

Slowly but surely, more diverse groups of people from other villages moved into Chuo. She paid workers to build different buildings, such as a new school and a basic leadership center.

The next year, in January, the country stabilized enough for Elsa to open the borders. All main roads between different borders entering her country had giant permanently frozen glacier ice arches, bridges, and gates welcoming travelers into the Land of Ice. The first country she agreed to meet with was the Land of Iron.

The trip took a total of three days, mostly due to the civilian passengers escorting her. She elected five of her castle workers and two people of government from each village to be her entourage. The Land of Iron first provided twenty capable samurai waiting her ship at Hokuto's port to assure her safe travels abroad. She didn't think to need them, but her entourage's spirits were noticeably higher after seeing the military force provide protection the entire journey. Perhaps her country would need to create a military group to protect the people...

In the end, the Land of Iron and the Land of Ice agreed upon a trade, where Elsa would provide grain and hearty legumes in return for the Iron Daimyo to build a samurai base in Chuo, among other minor agreements and deals.

Upon arrival back in her country, the news of a samurai base being built resulted in Chuo growing exponentially. Hundreds, if not thousands of men and women wished to pick up the sword. She expanded on her city of ice, funneling government funds into building an even larger area. While not as large as Minami, its rapid growth still shocked her.

The workers from Iron were nothing but _extremely_ efficient. Under several project masters, they built a samurai base and housing fort in a matter of months - months while Elsa busied herself visiting other nations. She didn't quite trust other nations yet for large parties to tour the Land of Ice, but all in due time, the gates would open up more.

Her entourage visited the Land of Fire, the Land of Lightning, the Land of Snow, and the Land of Paddies within those months. It was toward her sixteenth birthday did an odd request filter through.

"Erisa-sama? There is a guest at the doors requesting your presence," her gentle lady in waiting informed Elsa while she sat on her throne, looking over the monthly expenses of the Samurai's funding.

Elsa rose an eyebrow. "Is he a visiting citizen from Chuo, Haruka-san?"

Sometimes citizens forgot that there were altars and shrines set out for Mina a few kilometers east, thus bringing gifts directly to her person. It was quite tedious, really.

Haruka, a wide eyed brunette only a few years older than the daimyo of Ice, fidgeted slightly. "N - No... He was very adamant about being from the Land of Hot Springs." She leaned in closer, conspiratorially. "I think he wants to ask your hand!"

The young daimyo frowned. "Are you sure he's not just a traveler wanting to join the military?"

Her assistant deflated, as she caught on to the truth. "Shall I retrieve him, Erisa-sama?"

Elsa waved her hand nonchalantly. "Sure, sure. Don't let him freeze to death at the doors."

She continued reading the expense reports until a very familiar voice rose her out of the dull thoughts. "Daimyo of the Land of Ice, I am looking for work, and as a very capable shinobi... Erisa?! What the hell?!"

She looked up. Then down. Then back up. "Hidan?"


	6. Glimmer

**Ice and Snow**

**After Anna's coronation as queen, Elsa makes one last trip to Ahtohallan for closure. But messing with ancient magic often leads to disastrous results, and Elsa is catapulted through space and time to unfamiliar lands... as a child?**

**Chapter 6**

**Published: 2020.02.01**

* * *

"Holy shit, you seriously suck!" Hidan exclaimed. He twirled his scythe - a new one, three pronged and blood red - casually with his bare fingertips, while Elsa did her best not to collapse to the floor.

She huffed out ragged breaths. "You can't fault me for being rusty. I've been a bit busy running an entire country!"

The silver haired boy - no, he was a _man_ now - snorted. "Yeah, whatever. Doesn't excuse the fact that you're basically just chunin level now. Some C-rank loser."

Elsa regained her momentum and lunged back at her sparring partner, taking clumsy swipes with her ginormous ice scythe. While she much preferred using lighter and slimmer weapons, Hidan had insisted that he could make her into jounin level using his own scythe abilities. Or something. Mostly just a lot of rude words and a subsequent punch to his nose. Unfortunately, she wasn't very good yet, and he was able to block her attack and push her back in a blink of an eye.

"I retired... as a chunin," she gasped out, clutching her abdomen. "S'not my fault you went and became some A-rank sword-for-hire in the past three years."

He sneered endearingly, then continued their lesson.

After their dramatic reunion all those weeks ago, Elsa hired her childhood friend? enemy? frenemy? to be her personal guard. All daimyos, apparently, enlisted ninja guards outside of their samurai platoons. Most samurai just didn't have the mindset to needlessly slaughter enemies, like the ruthless black ops did. Therefore, Elsa decided to put Hidan's violent tendencies to good use and make him guard her and her castle, sparing the smallest of mercies to thugs and intruders. Due to his extremely _odd_ nature, however, she made him stay undercover and undetected whenever she went outside. The samurai and workers stationed inside the castle eventually got used to him and his ugly mouth, but she didn't trust Chuo or any of the other five to not force his presence away from her "royal ears."

Whatever that meant.

As the months progressed, so did her progress. Hidan snobbishly admitted her to be a high B-rank level fighter with S-rank ice jutsu (they weren't chakra based! it was magic!) at one point down the line, at which someone in her castle overheard their conversation and immediately told everyone. A small party was held, celebrating how powerful the daimyo of the Land of Ice was, at which Elsa reluctantly transformed her classy formal kimono into a white snow queen outfit.

Several farms in Azuma, unfortunately, suffered from a plant eating fungus disease, and the year's grain output were dangerously low. Elsa spelled permafrost over the infected fields in order for the fungus to stop spreading, and the danger of permafrost resulted in about fifty farmers having to relocate their homes elsewhere. She housed the farmers and their families in Chuo, and gave them a fair amount of welfare money in order for them to survive until the next year's planting season.

The most interesting part of her year so far had to be how her country was growing. Ignoring the crop losses and minor displacements, the Land of Ice's prestige grew steadily across the globe. Hundreds of people came from the Land of Hot Springs, searching for affordable housing and the prospect of free education. The Elemental Nations were so focused on its ninja that it seemed to almost neglect the education and wants of the normal citizen. The ninjas were given the best government funded education, the ninjas were given barracks, the ninja, the ninja, the ninja... Not anymore. Elsa hardly tolerated the idea of being forced into a world where wars became so bad, people trained to be ruthless monsters to complete immoral goals. She gave her citizens a voice and allowed them to be educated to the best of the country's ability. Night classes were offered at all the schools for adults, to improve the older generation's literacy rate and basic skill sets.

A mandatory census took place towards her seventeenth birthday, and the surprising numbers of a ninety-two percent literacy rate revealed itself. It was shortly after this census did a letter come in from a shinobi hawk, straight to her throne room.

"That's a Land of Fire hawk," Hidan noted, looking up from his position leaning against her throne. Said hawk, all brown feathered and muscular, shrieked accusingly at her glaring guard, then deposited the note right onto her lap.

Elsa sighed. "Pray tell, please tell me you know this because you love studying."

Hidan smirked. "Nah, I once ran a job where some Kumogakure shinobi paid me off to shoot down Konohagakure messenger hawks. Got like ten thousand ryo for each bird."

"Never mention that again, please. Especially not in front of any Land of Fire ambassadors."

He made a show of craning his neck all around the throne room. "Coast is clear, Erisa-_sama_. Even that stupid bird left."

She berated him while opening the wax seal on the letter. "Hidan, just call me Erisa or Erisa-san. I don't need any formality from you. You're probably just mocking me."

His annoying crooked smile told her that her request went in one ear and straight out the other.

She blanketed the urge to stab him and quietly read the letter.

_Dear Daimyo of the Land of Ice, the Fair Queen Erisa, the One Who Watches the Ice and Snow, Queen of Winter..._

"Why the fuck do you have so many titles?" Hidan butt in, peering over her shoulder.

"Hey, you're not allowed to read official documents! Don't you see the Hokage's signature on here?"

He shrugged. "Whatever. All I see is a chance to go see some brats fuck up an arena. Let me just say, I'm in."

And sure enough, the letter from the Hokage was a polite inquiry to see if the daimyo was interested in viewing Konohagakure's chunin exams. At the chunin exams, she could possibly, of course, mingle with other countries' nobles and try to enact a few more profitable trade deals or create more favorable relations. She drafted a letter back, assuring her and an entourage's attendance.

Barely a week later, another Konoha hawk arrived, explaining that they were going to provide a high ranking jounin to escort her and her entourage down. She read this as a publicity scheme, to ignite some sort of belief in Konoha's forces by so willingly extending someone so powerful, but didn't refuse the idea. Perhaps Hidan would finally shut up about finding a better sparring partner (when they were the only former ninja in the entire country! the nerve of him!).

Three months later, Elsa traveled down south to the Land of Fire with a renown jounin - the Hokage's son himself, Sarutobi Asuma. His entrance to her country was met with astounding bravado and blatant admiration of the icy entrance gates. For some reason, Hidan hated the Konoha jounin at first sight, hardly tolerating his presence. Thankfully, Asuma-san wasn't much of a talker and didn't mind hanging back behind the entourage. The best part of the mildly stressful journey had to be actual ride. She conjured a carriage of ice to carry herself and her two handmaidens, and a snow reindeer for everyone else. The samurai very reluctantly rode on them, but Hidan and Asuma basically jumped onto the golem animals without further question.

People gawked when her entourage rode in, admiring the winter magic. Due to the hot and humid year round climate of the country, she allowed for the temperatures in her immediate radius to drop several degrees. A flurry of snowflakes were left in her carriage's wake, and she enjoyed hearing the laughter of children as she passed through the crowds. Finally, they reached the Land of Ice's newly built ambassadorial building, and she exited the carriage. Before that, however, she transformed her dress into layers of flowing white silks and radiating spikes of ice jewelry. Her crown glistened under the heavy sun, but never melted into her eyes.

The Hokage and two of his council members greeted them inside. She caught a few narrow glances at her display, but it wasn't like they could just rudely ask what her deal was. No, their visit was courteous and exceedingly polite.

The exams themselves? Not so much.


End file.
